The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac to top new Classic West, East festivals in July

The Eagles, shown during a 2014 concert at the Forum in Inglewood: Don Henley, left, Timothy B. Schmit, Bernie Leadon, the late Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh. Remaining band members will return to playing concerts for a pair of new festivals.

The Eagles will return for the first time since the death last year of founding member Glenn Frey for what is being widely reported as a new bicoastal music festival. The event will also feature Fleetwood Mac and is billed as Classic West and Classic East for the respective West and East Coast editions.

Both acts are managed by Azoff MSG Entertainment, but a spokesman for veteran superstar manager Irving Azoff said Thursday that “we are not prepared to release anything officially — this caught us by surprise,” in reference to Billboard’s initial report of the shows.

The magazine said the events are expected to take place in July at Dodger Stadium and at Citi Field in New York.

Multiple sources have confirmed to The Times that the two shows will indeed take place.

They follow on the heels of the runaway success in October of L.A.-based promoter Goldenvoice’s classic-rock mega-concert in Indio with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, the Who, Neil Young and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters.

Those shows, held over back-to-back weekends at the same Empire Polo field site that hosts the annual Coachella and Stagecoach festivals, quickly became the highest-grossing concerts of all time, pulling in $160 million for six days of performances.

For the Classic West and East festivals, numerous other acts are expected to be added to the lineups. The return of the Eagles puts an end to speculation about whether the group would continue without Frey, long considered the band’s leader and the chief architect of its signature sound and cofounder with Don Henley.

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Since Frey’s death at 67 from a combination of rheumatoid arthritics, ulcerative colitis and pneumonia, pop music pundits have speculated on whether and how the Eagles might continue.

Some have suggested that Jackson Browne — coauthor of the grouip’s first hit, “Take It Easy” — might step in for some performances (as he did with the other band members during their 2016 Grammy Awards tribute to Frey) or that the band might draft Frey’s pre-Eagles employer, fellow Detroit rocker Bob Seger.